It’s almost as if someone waved a magic wand…and just like that, the story of Cinderella was everywhere. This weekend, Knoxville Opera is taking on a lesser-known, but charmingly attractive ‘Cendrillon’ by Pauline Viardot.
Review: Knoxville Opera’s ‘Falstaff’ – An Exhilarating Winner
BY ALAN SHERROD In his Friday evening pre-curtain remarks to the audience for Verdi’s Falstaff, Knoxville Opera General Director Jason Hardy asked for a show of hands of those seeing a KO production for the first time. Surprisingly, what…
Preview: Knoxville Opera Courts ‘The Merry Widow’
Summoning its audience back to the familiar venue of the Tennessee Theatre this weekend, Knoxville Opera offers up a work that is the perfect example of Viennese operetta, Die lustige Witwe, or The Merry Widow, with music by Franz Lehár.…
Review: Knoxville Opera’s Superlative ‘Glory Denied’
BY ALAN SHERROD If there were any doubts that Knoxville Opera would be seizing a moment of transition and a change of direction with its new artistic team this season, those doubts were quickly banished this past weekend with…
Knoxville Opera Announces Its 2022-23 Season…And a Rebranded Future – Part 1
BY ALAN SHERROD Crossing thresholds is a part of the life process of both individuals and organizations. As an organization, Knoxville Opera now finds itself in 2022 at one of those thresholds—an intersection, really—in which it is choosing its…
Knoxville Opera Announces Big Changes To Its Artistic Management Team
BY ALAN SHERROD In what promises to be a significant change to one of Knoxville’s most important arts organizations, Knoxville Opera has announced that current Artistic Director Brian Salesky will be stepping down when his current contract concludes in…
Review: Knoxville Opera Wraps Its 40th Season With A Superb ‘Aida’
By Alan Sherrod It was probably inevitable that Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida would be Knoxville Opera’s choice to conclude the 2017-18 season—its 40th anniversary season. After all, it was to be a season designed to make a major statement for…
Previewing Knoxville Opera’s ‘Aida’: Soprano Michelle Johnson
In almost every decade, it seems, music writers love to dig up an age-old question: “where are the great Verdi sopranos?”